Michelle Obama: not just the senator's wife

MICHELLE OBAMA is the quintessential working Sister, juggling three schedules daily--homework, piano and dance lessons and sports activities for her two young daughters, her own busy schedule as an executive at the University of Chicago Hospitals and, just to keep things interesting, the national schedule for her husband, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.).

Sen. Obama has just completed a high-profile freshman year in the Senate, and while the outside world speculates about his future political ambitions, his family has experienced its own high-profile year of transition. During this year, his tall, pretty and always pragmatic wife shepherded the family through the types of life changes that are enough to upset the equilibrium of the most sanguine household.

In May, she was promoted to rice president for community and external affairs at the University of Chicago Hospitals, making her responsible for all programs and initiatives that involve the relationships between the hospitals and the community as well as management of the hospitals' business diversity program. "So often positions like community affairs are just marginalized positions that are for show," she says. "When I was hired here, one of the things I told the president was that hiring me can't be your strategy," she says, insisting that the hospitals invest in the surrounding community. "We have an obligation to ensure that we use our resources on behalf of our neighborhood and our city."

In June the Obamas left their cozy condo and moved into an expansive $1.6 million historic house on Chicago's South Side. The spacious home includes lots of indoor and outdoor play areas for the couple's two growing daughters, Malia, 7, and Sasha, 4. The couple jointly decided not to move the girls to Washington, D.C., after Obama's historic senatorial victory in November 2004, making him the country's only Black Senator and only the third Black United States senator since Reconstruction. With his across-the-board appeal, pundits are pushing Obama to consider a 2008 or 2012 presidential campaign. But his wife, an attorney who has worked in the private, public and non-profit sectors, says not so fast. She is encouraging him to focus on the present. "Our future is making sure Barack can get to our daughters' ballet recitals and balancing the demands of this current set of responsibilities with our need to build a strong family, and that's taking a lot of energy out of us now. It's very difficult to think about something as massive as running for president at this time. That is not a part of our day-to-day conversation," she says.

"I have a big village here. Unless it was absolutely necessary, we felt it would just be good to stay close to our base. It's proven to be a smart move, and he's come to understand the wisdom of my plan," she says, laughing.

It's Michelle's Chicago support system that includes her mother, brother and girlfriends, all of whom are an island of stability for her in the tidal wave of national politics.

Fiercely protective of her children, she insists that Sundays are sacrosanct family time. Her husband is usually home every weekend from Thursday to Sunday. "People ask how I'm handling his being away, and I say he's home more now than when he was running [for office]," she says. "He's breaking his neck to get home on the weekends."

Her days begin with a 4:30 a.m. workout on the treadmill and end more than 16 hours later as she tries to get into bed by 9:30 p.m. She is a firm believer in an early 8:00 p.m. bedtime for the girls. "They need it, and I need it!" she laughs. They allow their oldest child, Malia, to stay up 15 minutes later as long as she is reading. "It's a real treat for her and it's an incentive to encourage reading," she adds.

One of her friends, Valerie Jarrett, who is chairman of the Chicago Stock Exchange and executive vice president of the Habitat Company, says she believes her friend is far happier now than she was during the campaign. "I think the campaign took its toll on everyone because it was such a stressful time commitment and he [Barack] was away all of the time," Jarrett says. "But I also think that it's probably been more fun than she expected it to be and she's met some fascinating people whom she always wanted to meet." In fact, the senator's wife is a huge Stevie Wonder fan and was able to meet him when he did a fund-raiser for her husband. "He is my favorite person in the whole world and my favorite musician," she says.

Michelle Obama, a cum laude graduate of Princeton University, met her husband at Harvard Law School, and when they married nearly 14 years ago, being a political wife was not part of her plan. In fact, while campaigning in downstate Illinois in 2004, she described her initial reaction when her husband wanted to run for state senator. "I said, 'I married you because you're cute and you're smart, but this is the dumbest thing you could have ever asked me to do,'" she told a reporter. "Fortunately for all of us, Barack wasn't as cynical as I was," she says. Today she has come around to share and support her husband's dreams, but her feet are still planted firmly on the ground.